It was the promise of summer
by General KJ
Summary: BIRTHDAY STORY FOR WEIRDAWESOMECHICK! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The whole family is going on vacation, on a cruise. But nothing ever goes to plan with the Parker-Nichols Family and Drake, Josh and Megan will have to learn to care for and rely on each other when things go wrong. Rated T for mild language.


**A/N: NEW STORY TIME! It might upset some of you that I'm not updating an already existing story but this is a birthday request from my little sister WeirdAwesomeChick. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS, HOPE YOU GET EVERYTHIN YOU ASKED FOR :D**

**Story title is a lyric (as always) from the song 'Cliff Diving' by +44.**

**The characters are the same age as they were in Merry Xmas Drake & Josh (But obviously half a year older).**

**Time for awesomeness!**

**Chapter 1**

"#We're all goin on a… summer holiday…" Josh sang merrily to himself whilst bending over his suitcase, packing it, ready to go on vacation.

As Drake entered their shared bedroom, he stopped and stared at Josh in slight disgust.

"What the hell are you singing?" he asked, frowning.

Josh stood up straight, facing away from Drake and began to fold a t-shirt and continued to sing his song. Drake noticed that Josh had earphones in and they were blaring out some sort of atrocious music. He quickly walked up behind Josh and ripped one of the earphones out and shouted down his ear…

"TURN IT DOWN!" He shouted.

Josh screamed at the top of his lungs and jumped across the room in one huge leap.

"What the hell man?!" Josh panted, clutching his chest, "You scared the shit outta me!"

"Yeah, well I tried talking to you normally but you couldn't hear me." Drake shrugged.

"Was there something you wanted?" Josh asked, a little annoyed.

"I was asking what that terrible song you're listening to is." Drake replied, his frown returning.

"I dunno," Josh answered honestly, "it's just some British song I found on the internet about taking a vacation."

"Well it sucks!" Drake retorted.

"Hey, I like it!" Josh complained.

"Well, then you suck!" Drake spat.

"Dude stop being so grumpy, you should be happy, we're going on vacation tomorrow!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not, I hate this idea!" Drake said, grumpily.

"Why?" Josh asked, curious.

"Cause we're going on a cruise for a few weeks…!" Drake complained, throwing his arms in the air.

Josh's face turned into one of confusion.

"I'm struggling to see the downside." He said.

"I can't take my guitar with me cause mom says the walls are paper-thin and other passengers don't wanna hear me play… the pool's alright but not everyday for the next few weeks… I've listened to all the songs on my PearPod hundreds of times… How is there not a downside?!" Drake raged.

"You could take a book." Josh offered, trying to be helpful.

Drake glared at his step-brother…

"What…?!" He nearly screeched.

"OK… bad idea… forget I ever mentioned the B word." Josh squealed, covering his face with his hands.

Drake cooled down enough to stop glaring at Josh. Josh removed his hands from his face and smirked as an idea came into his head, a good one this time.

"Ya know…" Josh started, "there'll be some hot girls on this cruise…"

Drake's ears perked up.

"…in bikinis…" Josh continued.

Drake spun round with a glint in his eye and a smile on his face.

"…and our first stop on this cruise is Brazil, where I'm sure we'll be picking people up." Josh grinned; he had Drake wrapped round his little finger.

Drake's mouth opened slowly, he mouthed the words 'Holy Shit' but Josh could barely make out what he was saying.

"I never thought of it that way!" Drake said calmly, still not moved from his spot.

Suddenly he leapt in Josh's direction. Josh ducked and cowered in a standing mushroom shape as Drake leap-frogged him and ran over to his bed, pulling out a suitcase from underneath it and throwing whatever clothes he could get his hands on, inside. Josh stood up and turned to face Drake, he had never seen his brother move so fast.

Drake was blindly throwing items of clothing and bits of old gadgets into his case. A flailing arm shot out towards Josh, but Josh wasn't fast enough. Drake grabbed the front of Josh's shirt, not even looking at him, and pulled him into the case, head first. Josh's legs were kicking anything and everything around him but Drake didn't notice, he just tried to close the case, jumping on top of it in an attempt to get it to close.

"DRAKE…! IT'S… ME…! LET ME… OUT!" Josh shouted in time with Drake bouncing on top of him, though his voice was slightly muffled by the piles of half folded clothes that his face was harshly shoved into.

One of Josh's legs caught Drake in the chest as he got off the case, knocking him to the floor. Josh managed to put his feet on the floor and pull his midsection out of the case, unzipping it a little more to get his head and shoulders out.

Josh batted himself down and attempted to straighten out his shirt, before looking down at Drake who was still on the floor stretched out.

"…DUDE!" Drake shouted up at Josh, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

Josh's jaw dropped in amazement.

"YOU JUST TRIED TO SHUT ME IN YOUR CASE AND IM THE ONE THAT'S IN THE WRONG?!" Josh shouted back, completely baffled.

"I did not!" Drake replied angrily.

"Oh yeah, then how do I know that you have a red t-shirt with your own face on it in there and that it has a particularly large stain on it that I hope, for the love of all that is holy, IS CHOCOLATE?!" Josh screamed back in self-defense.

Drake got up but fell silent for a moment.

"I have a shirt with my own face on it?" Drake said, smiling, pushing past Josh to his case.

Josh's jaw dropped once again. How could his brother have not noticed that he tried to pack him into his suitcase?!

Drake pulled out the t-shirt and examined it.

"Oh yeah, this was from one of my fan-girls at a gig," Drake commented.

He found the stain and picked most of it off and ate it.

"Yep, that's definitely chocolate." He said, smiling, before throwing it back into his case and closing it up.

Josh just shook his head.

"Wait…" Josh stopped his brother from doing anything else, "you hadn't packed your case until now?"

"Nope," Drake replied, "I was gonna do it tomorrow morning."

"But we leave at 9am." Josh informed him.

"I know." Drake responded nonchalantly.

Josh shook his head again he doubted he would ever understand how Drake's mind worked, if it even worked at all.

Just at that moment Megan walked through their bedroom door and crossed the room to stand between Drake and Josh, facing Josh.

"Josh can I borrow a few of your books for the cruise, I've read all mine." She asked.

"Yeah sure Megs, help yourself, they're over there." Josh pointed towards his book case.

"I know where everything is in here; you don't have to tell me." Megan smiled, making Josh feel nervous.

She sauntered over to the shelves and browsed through the books, picking one out every now and again until she had a fairly large pile in her hands. She walked back towards the door. Upon passing Josh, he decided to ask her a question.

"That's a lot of books Megs, are you gonna have time to read them all?"

Megan took a few steps back, situating herself between her brothers once again. She looked at Josh with a frown on her face.

"We're gonna be gone for a while without anything to do, these should last me till we get back."

"What about the pool? That's something to do." Josh said matter-of-factly.

Megan glared at him, "I'm not going in the pool!" She said quietly and angrily.

Josh's face adopted a confused look. He saw Drake in his peripherals drawing his hand across his throat quickly and repeatedly, urging him not to press the matter but Josh ignored him.

"Why not?" Josh asked his little sister curiously.

Josh saw Drake close his eyes and slap his own forehead.

"None… of your… business!" she quietly growled at him.

She then barged Josh out of the way and left the room. Drake followed her a little way behind to the door. When he got there, he shut the door and spun round quickly, glaring at Josh.

"Does this not mean anything to you…?" Drake repeated the hand motion he was doing before.

"I just wanted to know why she wasn't going in the pool." Josh said in self defense, putting his hands up.

"Well you could've waited till she left then asked me! Jesus… and people say you're smart!" Drake cried out.

"Alright then, why isn't she going in the pool?" Josh asked.

Drake looked around himself, making sure there wasn't anyone there that shouldn't be before sighing. He was well aware of the high possibility that Megan had cameras and microphones in their room.

"She's gonna kill me for telling you this… She can't swim, she never learnt how," he told Josh in confidence, "but you can't tell anyone else. And you especially can't tell her I told you, that's assuming she hasn't got cameras and microphones in here anyway."

Josh pondered on this information for a moment. He then came to a conclusion.

"Ya know how you wanted somethin to do on this vacation…?" Josh asked.

"Yeah?" Drake responded cautiously.

"Well, how about, we teach Megan to swim?" Josh smiled.

Drake frowned a bit; it would keep him occupied, but…

"Do you think she'd let us teach her?" he asked.

It was Josh's turn to think now.

"Probably not," he replied, "but it's worth a try."

"Unless she decides to suffocate us in our sleep for even thinking about it!" Drake said, worried.

"That's why you're the one that's going to ask her!" Josh responded smugly.

Drake was speechless at his brother's cowardice.

"But we can deal with that situation tomorrow when we get there," Josh continued before Drake could oppose the idea, "Goodnight."

And with that Josh closed his case up and slid it off his bed onto the floor, before taking off his top and climbing into bed.

Drake didn't get a chance to argue, so instead he just turned out the light and made his way to his own bed, nearly tripping over Josh's case, causing a snigger to arise from Josh's bed. But instead of reacting he just climbed the ladder to his elevated bed, flopped down on the mattress and fell asleep almost immediately.

Elsewhere, in Megan's room, she had watched and heard the whole thing as Drake had predicted. When Josh had initially suggested the idea that they teach her to swim, she frowned and dismissed the idea, but then it had occurred to her that instead of laughing, the boobs she called her brothers, had actually thought about helping her, which was not something she expected.

She was a little bit touched that they cared enough to think about it, and decided that, should they make the offer, she would accept, for 2 reasons…

1. If she learnt now, it wouldn't be embarrassing later on in life if her friends wanted to go.

2. Because she would not be outmatched, they cared enough to offer, so she would care enough to make the effort.

Megan closed her laptop and put it in it's case ready for when she took it tomorrow morning. She then crawled under the covers and turned out her bedside lamp, before falling asleep.

**A/N: Well that's chapter 1 done, it was surprisingly long compared to what I was expecting but I think it turned out alright, with a little bit of comedy thrown in there :)**

**As I mentioned before, this was a birthday story for my little sis, so the future plotline was her idea, it might be chapter 3 before her idea comes into play, but it is the main part of the story that she came up with, so credit to her, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY… even though I have already said that :)**

**As always R&R :)**


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